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If you don’t want your proposal to look and sound like every other proposal the customer will have to read, then you need to get good at reading your proposal like the customer, and being honest about what you see… Read your proposal and look for the differentiators. Ask if other companies will claim the same things, whether or not they are true, whether or not your claim is stronger. If they can say the same things, you’ll all sound the same. Differentiators are the secret to writing a

The way we think about proposal efficiency has a major impact on the results we achieve. Instead of managing proposals as a cost to be minimized, we should manage them as an investment. Let’s start with how NOT to measure proposal efficiency When we think of proposal efficiency as doing more proposals with less effort, we ignore ROI and focus on lowering costs using an equation like: total cost of proposals divided by the number of submissions total value of wins divided by

It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3. Most proposal processes are created during proposal development. This is a bit like building the airplane while trying to fly it. But needs must.  I’ve often been asked to help a company with a proposal only to find that there basically was no process and I’d have to make one up while doing the proposal. Having written most of what you see on PropLIBRARY makes it easier for me to do this. But it also gives the insight needed to help others in similar circumstances.

I blame Henry Ford for the idea of the proposal assembly line. Although a case could be made that it was Frederick Winslow Taylor and the time and motion study method for management. But hardly anyone recognizes Frederick Winslow Taylor, and sooner or later everyone working in proposals meets someone who suggests setting up an assembly line. Using the assembly line model for proposals is a great way to lose money on proposals. It puts the emphasis on getting proposals out the door instead o

The following items can be used as a quality criteria checklist to determine whether what you have written is a proposal or a brochure. A brochure gives people something to buy. A proposal gives them something to consider and helps them reach a decision about it. Good brochure copy makes for bad proposal writing. You can use this list to determine whether what you have written reads like a brochure or reads like a proposal: Does it read like it is primarily an offer to sell the customer so

The scope of work required to achieve a high proposal win rate is bigger than one person. If your company depends on winning proposals for its revenue, you may need a Proposal Department instead of a proposal person. When to expand is really an ROI decision. When it comes to proposals, you do more to maximize your ROI by winning more than by keeping expenses low. It's time to expand your proposal department when adding another person will enable you to win far more than that person will cos

What is a pink team proposal review? We define a pink team proposal review as an assessment of whether what you plan to write will produce the proposal that your company wants to submit, before you write it. This ensures that people know the points they need to make in order to win, and sets the stage for reviews that lead to improvements instead of re-writes. A simpler version of this would be to determine whether you are ready to start writing the proposal. Unfortunately, at a lot of comp

While proposal management obsesses over process, advanced proposal management focuses on maximizing ROI and realizes that requires more than process alone.  We love to obsess over the proposal process. We talk about it as if it is how proposals are done. However, once a proposal manager gains a few years’ experience, every one I’ve ever spoken to realizes that success requires a lot more than just steps. A lot of proposal issues relate to working through other people, especially across orga

Don't let the name fool you. An Executive Summary has a specific purpose in a proposal. But it has nothing to do with the name. If you don’t have time to read the whole proposal, what do you want to know? Is it: A little about each section of the proposal? A recitation of your own mission and goals from someone who claims to "understand" them? Information about the company submitting the proposal? Why this proposal is your best alternative for getting the most

People sometimes struggle with addressing benefits when they write proposal copy. They stumble over what words to use and how to say things. One way to overcome this is to do away with most of the words. With a features and benefits table you focus on the key items and not sentence construction. And because they are visual and less wordy, they are friendly to the proposal evaluator as well.  A features and benefits table itemizes the key elements of your approach or offering, and turns them

One of the hardest parts of writing a great proposal in response to an RFP is dealing with the fact that many (most?) RFPs are poorly written. You can't follow the instructions, comply with the requirements, offer something great, and maximize your score against the evaluation criteria if you can't understand what the expectations are or if something in the RFP doesn't match up or is broken. Give the customer some sympathy, because writing an RFP is harder than writing a proposal. Try it so

This is an article about doing proposals The Wrong Way. That is what you have to do when you are required to submit a proposal your company is not prepared for and you don’t have the information you need to win it. With all the problems and weaknesses that you have to overcome, maybe your company shouldn’t be bidding it at all, but that decision isn’t up to you. The best practices are all about preparation and won’t help you in adverse circumstances like these. So you’ve got some challenges

The process detailed below for creating a proposal compliance matrix, shows writers where in the proposal they should address every RFP requirement: Definition: A proposal compliance matrix uses a grid to show which RFP requirements are relevant to each section of the proposal.  A proposal compliance matrix shows proposal writers where the customer expects to find each require addressed in the proposal. A proposal compliance matrix shows exactly which RFP r

Proposal theme statements are how you articulate why the customer should select you. They deliver your message, tell your story, and flow through the proposal document. They provide the big picture and define what your proposal means. Themes may be incorporated into headings, tag lines, text boxes, or just be the main point of a paragraph. They are the message and there are many ways to deliver it. You need to be able to articulate your proposal win themes so that you can build the proposal

This is an opportunity for consultants who want an easy way to promote themselves. We want to expand the Inspiration Libraries we’ve added to MustWin Now. We're looking for consultants who know how to do things like plan a construction job, build rockets, run a project, manage software development, do engineering, manage supply chains, operate a help desk, do recruiting, implement quality methodologies, provide janitorial services, develop curricula, perform maintenance, design systems

A lot of improvisation usually goes into proposal efforts. Proposal management is often an assignment to figure out how to do something while doing it. This can result in conflicts in expectations. Conflicts like these are best resolved before they manifest. Plus it’s good not to set yourself up for failure by going in with the wrong expectations. The list below is written from the proposal manager’s point of view. And it applies to consultants as well as employees. But you can also use it

Warning: This article challenges things people may have learned about proposals when they got started. It's good to learn better ways of doing things. But I find it amazing how much resistance there is to change in this area and how much it holds improving proposal quality back. So forgive me if I'm a little too honest... With the thousands of subscribers and hundreds of companies I’ve worked with, I’ve never seen one use the color team model to achieve consistently effective proposal revie

Who do you need on your proposal team? The place to start is with what activities need to be covered and what skills are needed. The easiest way to account for all the activities and corresponding skill requirements is to categorize them by the roles that people play in proposal development. Proposal development roles We prefer to define roles functionally. It doesn’t matter how many people you have doing the work, as long as you have every function covered. On a small proposal you migh

Joining a company should be about opportunity. Personal, professional, and fiscal. But where does that opportunity come from? Most jobs become a status quo. You have a role, you fulfill it. If you excel, there is the potential for promotion. But if you work on a contract for a service company, promotions and pay increases are impacted by the terms of the contract. Usually your company can't simply pay you more and charge the customer more to cover it. Usually they can't create a new positio

Great proposal writing isn't based on slick words. Great proposal writing does not require the editing skills of a professional. You really don’t have to be an expert in anything to be a great proposal writer. But there is one thing that is absolutely necessary, and not everyone has it. I’m not even sure that everyone can develop it. That thing is perspective.  To write a great proposal, you must be able to conceive which words to use from the customer’s perspective. You must be able to thi